Understanding Clown Loach Behavior

[pinkertd]

Hi All,
Got a chance to observe two of my young clown loaches yesterday, usually they see me coming and dive for driftwood or plant cover. They were grabbing each other by the mouth, like a lip-lock thing. They didn't seem to be in a frenzy with each other like you'd expect to see if they were arguing. Just grabbing each other and going in a few circles, letting go, then doing it again. Eventually they stopped and went on their merry way to explore for food. Why are they doing this?

[Emma Turner]

Hi Debbi,
That sounds like a half-hearted attempt at a couple of youngsters deciding who was boss. When they get bigger, this sort of behaviour you observed will intensify during any arguments that might occur. This sequence of pics in an old thread of mine shows two larger ones engaging in this lip-locking (to the point that the mouths look sore and red): http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=5072 Of course, once the argument is resolved, any wounds heal quickly in good water.
Have you got more than 2 clowns? If not, you will need to add to the group (so that you have at least 5) so that the 2 you have do not constantly pick on one another and a natural hierarchy can form.
Hope this helps,
Emma

[pinkertd]

Hi Emma, and thanks. Half-hearted is a good description. In this tank I have only the two of them and they are babies. They are in a recently set up 55G densely planted heaven for a herd of 35 baby sids . The only other tankmates are my older 6 adult albino cories with 7 of their baby cories (the 7 are going to ship to new homes when the weather is a bit warmer) and 4 of my young 2" bristlenose babies. There will only be 1 bristlenose once they grow out some more. It is a loach only tank intended only for sids except for the cories and bristlenose to help keep things clean and no other stock to be added. When I was given these 2 baby clown, I originally intended to house these two clowns together with two other clowns I have in my 72G discus tank. Once all the loaches are bigger, I want to move them all into their own 90G. The two CL's in the discus tank chase one another quite a bit too. At this point, I'm very hesitant to put the 4 of them together anywhere for fear of real squabbling and stress to either the discus or stress to the baby sids. I had taken in the first baby clown loach since the loach was in immediate danger of being flushed by the owner. I know you are not supposed to keep them alone, so I added the second for companionship. and they've been in the discus tank for a few months together but I still see some chasing. The last two clown loaches which are in the sid tank were brought to me as a surprise from a family member I guess well-meaning, but has really created a dilema for me right now. I'm seeing it does not always pay to rescue a fish from flushing?

[Diana]

Keep up the good work! For now, I think you are doing well to keep the very young clowns with fish of their own size.
When it comes time to separate the fish, and set up the 90 gallon I would move the smallest fish in first to give them a chance to scope out the tank, find the hiding places and get settled in. Then add the larger Clowns.

I have a similar dilemma coming up:
I have 3 Clowns that are barely larger than 1", 2 that are pretty close to 2" and 3 that are 4-5", all to go into a 125 gallon tank.
The smaller Loaches are OK in the smaller tanks, but the large ones are in my Discus tank, and they (the Clowns) really want more water movement. They are quite boisterous and I can see they are annoying the Discus.